Mercer University has revised its 2021 spring semester calendar to cancel spring break and replace it with midweek breaks throughout the semester.
The change was made to eliminate long breaks and reduce the risk of community spread of COVID-19, similar to the removal of fall break from the fall 2020 calendar.
“While we will observe the Martin Luther King Jr. and Good Friday holidays, spring break has been eliminated and replaced with four midweek breaks spread throughout the semester for Macon undergraduate students,” President William D. Underwood said in an email sent to students, faculty, staff and parents of undergraduates on Nov. 3.
Students in other programs and on other campuses will be notified by their academic deans of spring calendar adjustments, he said.
The 2021 spring semester will start on Jan. 7, and the last day of classes will be held April 30, as scheduled. For Macon undergraduates, classes will not meet on Feb. 10, Feb. 23, March 5, and March 30. All campuses will observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (Jan. 18) and Good Friday (April 2).
In addition, Macon undergraduate classes will not be held April 15, which tentatively has been scheduled for Breakthroughs in Engagement, Arts and Research Day, otherwise known as BEAR Day.
The full spring academic calendars are available for Macon and Atlanta on the Registrar’s website.
Between Aug. 20 and Oct. 29, 185 students, faculty and staff in Macon and Atlanta tested positive for COVID-19, for a positivity rate of 3.5%. This indicates coronavirus transmission, relative to testing, has been low during the fall semester.
“I am confident, based on our experience this fall, that Mercerians can and will continue to adapt as needed to pursue the University’s mission to teach, to learn, to create, to discover, to inspire, to empower and to serve while preserving a healthy campus environment,” Underwood said.
